Friday, December 10, 2010

Kali's Story

CBC Radio brings the story of Kali this morning...of losing her parents to a drunk driver.  Accidents involving alcohol are on the rise in NB - from 32% to 40% of the fatal accidents in motor vehicles.  Click here to follow Kali's story (3 min) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8QAkxjJQug


I hear people often declare, "Who am I to say what is right or wrong for another person?"  The other choice is anarchy, folks.  To refuse to stand for right and wrong is to drown in the syrupy-slow suffocation of moral goodness..to flirt in the icy off-stage shadows, to refuse to strut our hour upon the stage.  The choice to engage the fundamental right-wrong discussion is fundamental - an orientation that flavors our life like a vanilla bean latte.  We choose to drift from the drama or to let our voice be heard.  I encourage us today - engage her (the drama) full-on...a drama that may involve naming sin for what it is.  


Too much alcohol clouds our judgment.  Might I suggest that this is a perfect illustration of what sin does.  Sin clouds our judgment - impairs discernment and disarms caution.  Sin patiently bears down upon our conscience to stop the double-talk...to forfeit the path of right.  The din of rebellion arises in the heart - "There are no absolutes.  I only believe this because religion taught it to me - it is irrelevant.  It is facile.  I am mature now - ready for complexity, daring and moral ambiguity!"

Kali does not force people to abandon their dangerous, careening path but she appeals to them.  As Pope John Paul II said, "The Church proposes" to those of unbelief "she does not impose." And propose Kali must...as she stands amidst the wreckage of her life.


Do we need to come face to face with the wreckage of our lives before we sober up?  



I know for my own life the encroachment of sin in my own life is often shown forth in avoidance of duty.  I begin - so subtly at first - to engage bad habits - like substituting my duties for personal preferences and pampering.  Soon I find myself completely introverted - tuned in only to the 'Me' channel.  My life becomes the "Me-Tube".  




--------------------------------------Appeal to the Attentive Father----------------------------------------

Father, thank you for sending Jesus your Son to us.
In this Advent season, prepare the 'inn' of our hearts
with silence as the straw for the creche, and adoration as
the swaddling cloth to wrap Him in.  Make us contemplatives
of a new order - able to hear Your voice and heed your word.

Father, I am sorry for putting off my duty - to prayer, to work, to accepting responsibility
for my own self-care...even making time for friendship.


I pray for Kali and her brother - I abhor the unfairness of the situation she lives with.   
I thank You for my own parents.  I ask - please bless them today.
I pray that Kali's story encourage us to do what is right. 


Father, as I prepare for this weekend's homily, as I prepare for this day
and try to own up to my responsibilities (work, play, struggle, rejoice!)
I ask your forgiveness
for my words are wobbly, my convictions are compromised and my decisions deficient.
I've spent more time hiding from my duties than fulfilling them.
Yet,
You ask only humility, zeal and perseverance.
I am prone to give up - seeing the mountain of my weaknesses
rather than investing in Your evidential power. 

Father, because I do not trust...I do not feel the strength to make the effort.
Instead I complain!

Attentive Father,
Allow me the grace to have the dish-pan hands of life.

And if there is any way possible, please allow me a visit home - today - if possible...with family and friends.  I miss their goodness to me.  It is like being in an environment that breathes - supports - new life in me.

If I am to remain here in town,
help me bring joy to those I meet.


~ Your son, Aaron

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

in the Desert

From Robert Barron's homily
Dorothy Day's one word to America:  "Repent."  John the Baptist says "Repent, change - literally 'meta-noos' - beyond-mind.
Go beyond the mind you have.  Change your perspective.  Change your way of seeing.  Most of us think our lives are about us: my projects, my plans, my ambitions.  Everyone else is my supporting cast.
You're life is not about you!  The Holy Spirit is about working in us what HE wants to accomplish in me.  Now my life becomes a kind of adventure not a fierce game of the ego.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Hope Cafe

I'd like help to realize my dreams.  Need someone, like a soul-dentist, to wrench them free and give me hope again...

And then there are the people I meet - who have nothing.  No family, no support systems, no steady living situation.  These are the forgotten.

There are those who have watched institutions they love crumble and ebb away.

And I wonder...what is this world trying to tell us?

You and I are invited this Advent - to a place called 'hope'.
This place, I like to think, is a ambiance-filled cafe on the downtown corner of a sleepy town.
Hope is a place to be restored when there seems like nothing left.
When you feel gutted by the world and her emptiness...and the emptiness of soul that visits.

Hope is a cafe.
Its a place where you can warm up and let your shoulders down from 'stress'.
Its a place where you can discuss ideas,
be a momentary thespian (that is, theatre-speak for actor),
a momentary philosopher, a political or cultural commentator
and offer memorable diagnostics on the state of things.
Its a place where you speak your heart and feel the thrill of grasping new beginnings.

Hope is a place where people listen to one another.
They hear the deeper things - like the passion underlying someone's convictions.
Hope is a place where others take the pains to get to know you...
and in the process you get to know yourself.

So grab a mocha-whatever and join me at the cafe.
"Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead...
   and Christ will shine on you!"

- Father Aaron

Friday, December 3, 2010

St. Francis Xavier day

"How I wish I could return to the university of Paris where I studied, and run, like a madman, through the halls... 'Change your ways - you who value learning more than charity!  They face damnation because you are not willing to go on mission!"  - St. Francis Xavier (loose translation)

ps - Today is special to all X ring wearers.  I myself wear the green and gold 'T' :) www.stu.ca

Taize song for peace: http://www.taize.fr/IMG/mp3/taize_podcast_2010_11_29_advent-1.mp3

Thursday, December 2, 2010

AaRoN's SoNg - FiLL mY cuP (liFe to tHe fuLL)

YHWH is my peace
He is the shalom of my soul
He is the Christmas lights on the tree of my heart
It is His face that shines in me
It is His face I long to see
to sit quietly, surrendered,...at peace.
I am blessed because He chose me
and it wasn't for my charm or smarts or good looks
He chose me 
because He loves me.
He wants to raise up a generation 
and bring breath back on the earth
He wants to renew creation
freeing us from the smog of confusion
He has been my Savior, my song, my Therapist, my hammock,
my TEAR TOWEL, my clawing post, my scapegoat, my peace, my Light
and MY HOPE 
(now THAT is worthy of a song!)
What He has done for me He will do for you.
*because all things are possible with God
(for this is the sixth month for Elizabeth, who was said
to be barren....God doesn't do 'barren' - He turns the desert
into running streams...)
That doesn't mean you won't feel pain
or travel the awe-full road of agony
or feel alone or weak in faith or embarrassed.
God is not looking for supermen.
God is thirsting for our LOVE.
His invitation to the world, my generation, is 
Take and Eat, this is My body, this is My blood.


* song written in response to a Bible study question in Deborah Allen's class.  
The assignment was to create your own song - modeled after Mary's song
(Luke 1:46-55).  This is my song of praise.  

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Wednesday December 1st, World AIDS day

I was shocked this week on a CBC radio program dealing with HIV/Aids in the Maritimes - faced with a direct question: "What group is most at-risk for HIV infection?" the respondent refused to mention gay-men.  Before you sound the alarm, I am not suggesting HIV is a 'gay' disease.  However, I am only suggesting that, to my knowledge, the most at-risk group happens to be gay men.  I felt disturbed by the lack of honesty the respondent portrayed.  Instead, she answered, "Anyone who is engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse is most at risk."  Does anyone know the answer to the question as it was posed?

I have included below a paste from the blogsite Whispers in the Loggia:concerning Benedict XVI:

 "Meanwhile, considering the recent media melee/ad intra foodfight occasioned by the Pope's comments on condoms in his freshly-released chat-book, something worth watching in the days ahead in light of the fracas is the degree to which Benedict will maintain his pontificate's well-established practice of an annual appeal to mark World AIDS Day -- observed by the church and civil society alike on 1 December.

As the pontiff duly noted in Light of the World, "the church does more than anyone else" in its global care efforts for many of the over 40 million stricken with HIV/AIDS "because she does not speak from the tribunal of the newspapers, but helps her brothers and sisters where they are actually suffering."



From practically all sides, said work yet again went ignored amid the latex-wrapped storm of discourse that shrouded the Vatican over the last week... along those lines, though, given the particular ecclesial context of this World AIDS Day, here's a recap of B16's annual statements for the observance


General Audience, 30 November 2005:
Tomorrow, 1 December, is World AIDS Day, a United Nations initiative planned to call attention to the scourge of AIDS and to invite the International Community to a renewed commitment in the work of prevention and supportive assistance to those afflicted. The figures published are alarming!

Closely following Christ's example, the Church has always considered care of the sick as an integral part of her mission. I therefore encourage the many initiatives promoted especially by the Ecclesial Community to rout this disease, and I feel close to persons with AIDS and their families, invoking for them the help and comfort of the Lord.

Angelus, 26 November 2006:

This coming December 1 marks World AIDS Day. I wish greatly that this occasion promotes an increased responsibility for the care of this illness, together with the pledge of avoiding each instance of discrimination toward the many stricken with it. Calling the comfort of the Lord upon the sick and their families, I encourage the many initiatives that the Church maintains in this area.

General Audience, 28 November 2007:

World AIDS Day will be celebrated this coming 1 December. I am spiritually close to all who suffer from this terrible disease as well as to their families, especially those afflicted by the loss of a spouse. I assure all of them of my prayers.


I would also like to urge all people of good will to multiply their efforts to prevent the spread of the HIV virus, to oppose the contempt that often affects those who have the disease and to care for the sick, especially when they are still children.

Angelus, 29 November 2009:
[This coming 1 December sees the world day against AIDS.] My thoughts and prayers go to every person afflicted by this disease, especially the children, the very poor, and all those who are rejected. The Church does all it can to fight AIDS through its institutions and workers. I urge everyone to make their own contribution through prayers and actual care, so that those suffering from the HIV virus may experience the presence of the Lord, source of comfort and hope. Lastly, I hope that, through more coordinated efforts, we may be able to stop and eradicate this disease.

Needless to say, anyone interested in the "other shoe" might want to keep an eye for what happens at Wednesday's Audience."

AK:    LET US PRAY.  ACT.  BECOME EDUCATED. 
FIND WAYS TO WORK TOGETHER WITH THOSE WHO HOLD BELIEFS THAT CAUSE TENSION WITH THE CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVE. 

Any ideas?